• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

My Football Writer

My Football Writer Norwich City news… comment… analysis

Norwich City – news, comment and analysis

Find the best betting sites
  • Home
  • About us
  • The Team
  • Archives Index
  • Patreon
  • ADVERTISE
  • Contact us

Lambert offers few excuses as the Canaries fail to put any dent in Rovers' slim survival hopes

22nd April 2012 By Rick Waghorn Leave a Comment

Please share

Norwich City’s quest to bag every last penny of Premier League prize money before the season finishes ended up with little more than a blank cheque from this weekend’s long-haul to Blackburn Rovers.

Goals either side of the interval from first Mauro Formica and then Junior Hoilett kept Rovers’ slim hopes of defying the drop alive as the Canaries found themselves stuck fast in 12th.

With £750,000 a place up for grabs, Paul Lambert’s summer spending plans could yet be so much the poorer if the Canaries simply wind down through the last three games of the season – kicking off with next weekend’s home clash against FA Cup finalists Liverpool.

They are all-but home and hosed, mathematically. For while Bolton could yet over-haul the Norfolk side, Norwich’s vastly better goal difference to the likes of QPR and Wigan should still see them home in the unlikely event that both the Rs and the Latics win their last three games of the season.

More importantly, should Bolton lose at Aston Villa on Tuesday night then the maths will be over. At best Wanderers could then only finish on 42 points; Rovers are already condemned to pin their hopes on 40 points being good enough to survive.

Either way, Norwich’s Easter Monday win at Spurs looks to have done the job with 43 points slapped on the board.

Not that City boss Lambert was taking much consolation from such sums. It wasn’t one of Norwich’s finer road-trips as those two strikes either side of the break put Blackburn in command of proceedings as the Canaries struggled to regain much of a foothold in the contest.

Grant Holt and Jonny Howson had chances; substitutes Anthony Pilkington and Aaron Wilbraham would catch the odd glimpse of Paul Robinson’s goal. But, in large part, it was a long and frustrating trip to Ewood Park for the Yellow and Green Army.

“It was a tough game for us, but I don’t think we ever got going,” admitted the Canary chief, unamused by the manner in which, for example, Morten Gamst Pedersen’s 40th minute cross whipped five City players out of the game and enabled an unmarked Formica to slot home.

Likewise Hoilett was allowed the time and the opportunity to drift across the Canary box before curling No2 into the top corner; lessons not learned from the corresponding fixture at Carrow Road.

“We had a lot of the ball in the first-half, but we gave away two silly goals,” said Lambert.

The second ripped the wind from Norwich’s sails as the manager’s best-laid plans at the break suddenly went AWOL.

“That lad has scored a wonder goal against us at Carrow Road – and he’s a danger,” the Canary chief told the BBC afterwards.

“It was a great strike – don’t get me wrong. But we have got to close the ball down better than that. And then the horse has bolted.”

Always one for the selection surprise, Lambert threw James Vaughan back into the fray from the start as he made a clutch of changes from the side that lost 6-1 at home to title-hopefuls Manchester City last weekend.

Alas, nothing quite dropped for the injury-plagued striker on his return to front-line duty and Lambert was left to take solace from his side’s achievements over the course of the full season as opposed to their lack of prizes from an away day in Lancashire.

“The effort was there – I couldn’t fault it,” he said. “But if you’re looking for a performance it wasn’t there on the day for some reason and there’s not many times that I’ve said that this season. You just re-group and go again next week.”

They couldn’t recreate Spurs (a) every week.

“We hit a level there that was really, really high. But I can’t fault the lads. They have given me everything this year.”


Please share

Filed Under: none

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

FIND MY FOOTBALL WRITER ON

As featured on NewsNow: Norwich City news” style=

Norwich City News 24/7

@NorwichCityFC Latest

norwichcityfc Norwich City FC @norwichcityfc ·
7 Nov

Norwich City can announce a revised start date of November 13 for incoming sporting director Ben Knapper 👇

Reply on Twitter 1721844947429523836 Retweet on Twitter 1721844947429523836 27 Like on Twitter 1721844947429523836 258 Twitter 1721844947429523836
norwichcityfc Norwich City FC @norwichcityfc ·
6 Nov

Academy forward Kenny Coker has joined Chelmsford City on loan 🤝

All the best, Kenny 👊

Reply on Twitter 1721588258386395608 Retweet on Twitter 1721588258386395608 2 Like on Twitter 1721588258386395608 73 Twitter 1721588258386395608
norwichcityfc Norwich City FC @norwichcityfc ·
6 Nov

This week, @EFL clubs are highlighting their collective impact in the community.

We'll showcase some of the amazing work of our own @NorwichCityCSF 💛

Reply on Twitter 1721508820826849465 Retweet on Twitter 1721508820826849465 8 Like on Twitter 1721508820826849465 52 Twitter 1721508820826849465
norwichcityfc Norwich City FC @norwichcityfc ·
5 Nov

Kenny McLean's post-match interview ⬇️

Reply on Twitter 1721189956440174604 Retweet on Twitter 1721189956440174604 4 Like on Twitter 1721189956440174604 120 Twitter 1721189956440174604
Load More...

Copyright © 2023 21VC Ltd | All rights reserved | Not to be reproduced without prior permission.

Disclaimer: The information on this website consists of personal opinions. Whilst we have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the information contained on these Web pages is accurate and correct at the time of writing we do not accept any liability whatsover for any loss or damage caused by reliance on this information.

We do not accept any responsibility for information contained in other websites to which this site links. We strongly advise users to check any information before acting or relying on it.

Developed and Hosted by